


zuko is a chihuaha (small, angry, down to fight)

by arispeaks



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Aang wasn’t frozen in the iceberg, Aang would ship it, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Grandad!Aang, He’s just been hiding and chilling, Humor, I promise, Iroh would ship it, Nobody touches Aang’s kids, Not Aang, Not literally, Since Aang is a hundred-year-old hermit here would y’all mind if i made this Zutara, So like you know how aang doesn’t kill ozai, The more aang hears about what ozai has done, Yeah he’s probably gonna kill ozai, You’ll probably end up shipping Aang and Iroh anyway, but everything changed when this small fire prince arrived, but grandad!aang is iroh’s rival, honestly? valid, is that dad!aang would respect iroh, it’ll just be a side pairing, that’s for sure, that’s right folks we’ve got some petty aang vs iroh going on, the difference between grandad!aang and dad!aang, the more he wants to fuck his shit up, who’d want to get involved in a war anyway
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-08
Updated: 2020-05-08
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:53:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24072478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arispeaks/pseuds/arispeaks
Summary: What if Aang was actually the hundred-year-old, fully-realized Avatar that Zuko thought he was?A series of one-shots of Aang dealing with his adopted kids (and Iroh)
Comments: 30
Kudos: 151





	1. You Have to Level Up to Fight this Boss

**Author's Note:**

> based off a tumblr post from lesbians4sokka

_**“Fight me!”** _

Throughout their journey, Aang would hear those words coming from Zuko approximately 7,107 times.

However, for now, this is the first time he’s heard this challenge being offered to him by this angry, firebending child.

A normal hermit would have taken up the challenge so they would be left alone.

A normal Avatar would have accepted the challenge so they could teach this kid a lesson.

A normal 100-year-old man would have acquiesced to the challenge so they could dole out a good, old-fashioned,ass-whooping to take out a few decades of frustration.

But Aang is an air nomad, and he likes to think that he has more patience than a normal 100-year-old hermit who just so happens to be the Avatar.

So he does the only logical thing he could.

He plunges the kid into the ground, only leaving his head to be visible.

The kid sputters angrily, he tries to use his bending to get out of his... situation but his moves are impeded by the tightly-packed dirt surrounding him.

Aang walks towards the kid and crouches in front of him.

“So kid, how’d you find me?”

“I‘m not a kid! I’m Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation and I’ve come to capture you to restore my honor. Finding you was easy, now I only have to fight you.”

Aang quirks an eyebrow, amused; “So you’re going to fight me?”

“Yes!”

Aang gets up and dusts some dirt off his sleeve.

“Okay kid, tell you what; I’m not really the kind of guy who fights _a child_ so why don’t you go home, get stronger, and then we’ll trade blows once you can give me a fair fight. Sound good?”

“No! That does _not_ ‘sound good’ because I can’t even go home until... until I”, Zuko looks away and slumps as if all that fighting spirit he showed earlier has been drained out of him.

Aang releases the boy but he doesn’t seem inclined to stand so Aang just sits down beside him.

“Until what, Zuko?”

“I can’t return to the fire nation even if I wanted to; I refused to fight my father in an Agni Kai so he told me that until I could bring him the Avatar, I would remain in dishonor and exile.”

_What the hell. What kind of father-_

_Right, Fire Lord Ozai; warmongerer and usurper extraordinaire, and apparently father of the year as well._

“Did he give you that burn?”

_Ozai better hope the answer is no, or else-_

Zuko flinches.

_Oh hell no._

Aang stands and offers Zuko his hand, the prince stares at it warily.

“Get up kid. Change of plans. _I’ll_ help you get stronger _and then_ you can fight me, on one condition.”

Zuko’s mind races through the things that a 100-year-old hermit Avatar could want.

He comes up blank.

“You help me end this war.”

Zuko thinks about his uncle, who tries to mask his distaste of war with a sunny smile and a light joke.

He thinks about Lu Ten, a prince whose life was taken in this seemingly never-ending war.

He thinks about Azula, who seems to be slowly but surely descending into madness because of this war.

He thinks about his father.

He takes Aang’s hand and lets himself be pulled up.


	2. Aang Fights the Patriarch, the Patriarchy, and a Dragon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aang throws hands with a bunch of old men.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well, he throws hands with two old men, while in a prank war with one old man.

_**The Dragon** _

“Wow, This is such good tea Uncle Iroh! What brew did you use?”, Katara asks while sipping from the steaming cup.

“Well dear, it’s a classic jasmine brew but I do believe tea tastes better when it’s made with love and care.”

Aang takes a sip from his own cup.

_What the-_

If tea tastes better when made with love and care, then his was probably made with hatred and spite.

It tastes like sewer water laced with ghost peppers.

He spit it out, unfortunately drenching Toph, who was sitting across him.

“Ewww what the hell old man!”, Toph yelled, looking like a drowned cat.

“Sorry Toph”, Aang turned to Iroh who was trying to hide his snickers, “What _is_ this?”

Iroh schooled his face into a neutral expression.

“It’s tea.”, he deadpanned.

Great. Now everyone is looking at him weirdly.

“ _This_ is not tea. This is some bizarre concoction that was probably used to clean the decks of ships in the Fire Nation.”, Aang walked away to rinse out his mouth with water.

_This isn’t over Iroh._

A few days later, they were trekking along the mountains when an idea hit Aang.

Checking to see if anyone was paying attention to him, and seeing that all of them were engaged in conversations with each other, Aang enacted his revenge.

Subtly bending the mud beneath Iroh’s feet, the Avatar made the mighty Dragon of the West fall on his face.

Right into the muddy path.

Zuko rushed forward and helped his uncle up.

“Are you okay, Uncle?”

Iroh waved his nephew away with the reassurance that he was alright and that he’d just slipped.

Shooting a quick glare at the Avatar, he righted himself.

The Avatar, still not quite satisfied with his revenge, discreetly slipped a bar of soap into Sokka’s pack.

“Well, it’s getting late anyway. Why don’t we set up camp and you can go down by that river over there to clean up? I’ve got some soap here.”, Aang offered.

“Thanks. But no thanks. I’m not trusting _anything_ you hand me.”, Iroh hissed quietly.

Sokka offered his own soap to the general and he gratefully accepted it.

_Score._

When the kids had already settled into bed and had long since drifted off into dreamland, Iroh, feet squelching wetly into his sandals in his haste to confront the _jackass_ that was the Avatar, marched up to that very jackass sitting in front of the fire.

“I’m blue.”

“Now whatever it is that’s bothering you, I’m sure we can just talk about it. Don’t you have some tea in that pack of yours that can cheer you up?”

“No, I’m _literally_ blue. What the hell did you do?”

“Wow. I’m wounded, whyever would I do something like that to my dear comrade?”

Seeing that he wasn’t going to budge, Iroh resolutely marched to his tent.

“By the way, can you give Sokka this soap? He seems to have mistakenly put it in my bag.”, Aang tossed it to Iroh, who reflexively caught it.

_**The Patriarchy** _

_That’s it. I’m going to bash this guy’s face in._

Before that sexist asshole could walk away from where he’d trapped Katara in icicles, I sent up a wall of ice. 

Melting the spikes trapping Katara, I motioned for her to get to safety.

“I’m the Avatar, and I don’t care who the hell you are but _nobody_ talks to any of my kids like that.”

What followed was, in essence, an ass-whooping.

But hey, Aang had qualms with fighting children, not sexist pigs. So he was perfectly alright with whacking Pakku around.

He had the miserable sod wrapped around a tendril of water a few feet off the ground when he slipped.

The ice beneath his feet melted a little, causing him to lose his footing and slip, face-forward into the ice.

_Iroh what the fuck, now’s not the time._

With the Avatar flailing around, he accidentally dropped Pakku.

The waterbender, rubbing his head to relieve the dizziness, felt something shift under his foot. Cradling it in his hands; “This is my necklace.”

“No it’s not, it’s mine! Give it back!”, the little girl who’d challenged him earlier yelled.

“I made this sixty years ago for the love of my life, for _Kanna_.”, he turned towards the girl.

“My Gran Gran was supposed to marry you?”

“No wonder she left.”, Iroh said derisively.

_**The Patriarch** _

When he was younger, there were some people who’d told him that fighting was never the answer.

They were right.

Fighting wasn’t the answer, it was the question.

_And the answer was yes._

It felt so damn good to beat the shit out of this guy. For everything he’d put Zuko through, he deserved each and every blow dealt to him.

_Phoenix King my ass._

Now, there was another question.

_To kill, or not to kill._

Trapping Ozai in a rock, Aang pulled out a coin.

_Okay, heads I kill him, tails I don’t kill him._

Flipping it in the air, he resisted the urge to scowl when it landed on tails.

“Looks like it’s your lucky day, let me just take away your bending and you can take a nice long nap courtesy of that big boulder over there.”

And he did just that, taking his bending and taking pleasure out of slamming the boulder onto Ozai’s head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> kid!aang: no fighting >:(  
> grandad!aang: hold my bison


	3. Oh Look, It’s Fluff

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> this whole chapter is literally just fluff

“Um... Uncle? We got something for you.”

Iroh turned towards his nephew and their other kids shifting nervously on their feet.

“It’s just that we heard the people in town talking about it and we just thought...”, Toph looked away, blushing.

“We don’t uh mean that we see you as”, here Sokka mumbles slightly, but Iroh doesn’t get to ask for clarification because Katara cuts in.

“Right! We just... want to show you our appreciation, and uh...”, she lightly scuffs her sandals on the ground.

Zuko wordlessly holds out a package wrapped in brown paper towards him.

He takes it and carefully opens the box.

Oh. _Oh._

Inside there were six teacups, white with images painted on its surface.

For the first one it had him and Zuko sparring, the sunrise in the background just starting to tint the sky orange. This was the first moment Zuko was able to redirect lightning, this was the moment that they both realized the prince was on his way to finding inner peace.

After all, you can only create lightning when you were at peace.

For the second one, it was him and Toph sitting on a hill. He recalled that this was the time when he was describing the various details of the scenery to her; the colors of the houses, the pink and purple scattered in the sky, the emerald green leaves rustling in the wind.

For the third one, it had an image of him at the stove, cooking Sokka’s favorite food and with the boy preparing the ingredients for their dinner that night. Both of their eyes were scrunched up in laughter and it was one of tbe moments in his life where he forgot about the war.

For the fourth one, it showed him going through waterbending katas with Katara with the moon watching over them. This was the night he’d explained to her how, while only the Avatar could control all the elements, that didn’t mean that they couldn’t use each other’s techniques. This was when he taught her about true harmony between the elements.

The fifth one depicted him smiling gently while brewing some tea. 

It was the sixth one that blew him away.

It was him and the Avatar, standing back to back with a thin line that had the words; “Water, Earth, Fire, Air” scrawled on it. The backgrounds were what made it stunning. For the Avatar, a swirling vortex of water was at the top, followed by massive boulders floating in the air, he had a fire blazing in one hand and a ball of fire in the other. 

Iroh’s side also had the four elements in it, albeit in a different way. All of them; water, earth, fire, and air were a harmoniously coexisting. It had him standing on the shore of a gentle river, the mountains towering high above him, a campfire was burning and the air carried a flurry of leaves into the picture.

It was beautiful, all of them.

_But, why?_

“We made them at the pottery studio in town, Toph helped us so that’s why they don’t look like deformed rocks.”, Sokka informed cheekily when he saw the stunned look on their face.

Pottery; harmony between elements, the water used to keep the clay wet, the clay drawn from the earth, the fire used to harden the work, and the air used to dry the paintings.

“And we had someone help us with the paintings-“, Zuko was cut off when Iroh swept all of them into a hug.

He finally released them when they started squirming.

“Not that I don’t appreciate it, but why are you giving this to me?”

Katara grinned sheepishly; “Well, we heard some people in town talking about something called Mother’s day, and we decided, well...”

Toph continued for her; “It’s not like we’re saying you’re a woman or something, it’s just that, you’re kind of like our mom on the road. You talk with us about our feelings, you make the best tea, so...”

“Happy Mother’s Day, Uncle Iroh”, they said softly in unison.

He grabbed them in a hug again, and whispered; “I’ll always be your mother anytime you need me to be, little ones.”


	4. More Fluff

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> some love for aang this time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i can’t believe i’m speedrunning through five chapters in five hours. i need to have some coffee or something, it’s like 12 midnight where i live.

_I’m not going to pout, I’m not going to pout._

He had to admit, it was kind of sweet for the kids to give Iroh those cups. And hey, he did look awesome in the painting.

But what about him? You know, Avatar Aang, the dude who beats up bad guys and is an all-around awesome dude?

Didn’t _he_ get some appreciation? 

Whatever, he doesn’t care. He didn’t really _want_ cups and trinkets anyway.

—————————————————————  
A month or so later, he’d forgotten about the whole Mother’s Day thing.

That is, until the kids approached him with something tucked behind their hands.

“Hey Aang, we just wanted to give you uh... these.”, Zuko handed him an envelope, the others following suit.

Then they turned tail and practically sprinted to the campsite.

_What was that about?_

He eyed the envelopes scepitically, wondering if the kids were trying to pull a prank on him.

Probably not, considering that he liked to think he’d taught them better than that when it came to pranking.

_Rule Number One:_

_Don’t act suspicious._

He opened the envelope with Sokka’s messy scrawl first. 

**Hey Aang,**

**Well, we tried to find something for you but this town we’re in is just so _boring._ Not that I’m actually bored. Weird right? But it just seems like anywhere I’m with you guys, nothing is boring. _You’re_ the one who makes it not boring actually. It’s not just the different bad guys chasing after us, it’s not the awesome powers you guys have either. It’s just that, every moment with you seems like something worth keeping. When I grow old, and I’m telling stories of our awesome adventures to my grandkids, I won’t be telling them about the awesome Avatar who could literally move mountains, I’ll be telling them about Aang; Aang who told bad jokes and couldn’t cook, Aang who had endless patience with us, Aang who took us under his wing even if he didn’t have to, but made the choice to help us grow into our best selves anyway.**

**-Sokka**

He felt his heart clench with the overwhelming love he felt from the letter in his hands, and he carefully folded it back into the envelope.

He recalled how close he was to just staying a hermit forever, how he was so close to not meeting these kids, not being able to take them on this journey.

There were two envelopes with Katara’s neat handwriting on it, but one was green while the other was the same deep blue that Sokka’s was.

He opened the green one first.

**Aang,**

**I’m asking Sugar Queen to help me write this because; well, I’m blind.**

**But that never really mattered to you didn’t it? My blindness. All my life I’ve been looked down upon, dismissed, underestimated because of my blindness. But you never did. The badgermoles taught me earthbending, while people looked down on me. You were one of the first people to appreciate my bending, not just as a fighter but as a _bender,_ you didn’t see the destructive side of my earthbending, you saw my connection to the element. Thank you for that, honestly. You’ve been treating me better than my own dad ever did, and I hope that, to you, we can be the greatest kids we could ever be.**

**-Toph**

It was astounding really, Toph’s harmony with the earth, it was like nothing he’d ever seen before, and that was saying something because he’s been around for a century.

He opened the second blue envelope next.

**Dear Aang,**

**We could never ever thank you enough for everything you’ve done for us. People in town were talking about Father’s Day and we tried looking for a gift but we couldn’t find anything that we could give you.**

**That is, we couldn’t find any _material_ thing.**

**But as we were walking through town, we realized that there _was_ something we could give to you, our appreciation. **

**All of us have our own dads, but here on this journey, you’re our dad. You’re the one who taught us how to fight, how to defend our little family, how to stand up for ourselves.**

**To the whole world, you may be Avatar Aang, but to us; you’re so much more, you’re Avatar Aang, our father.**

**-Katara**

That’s it. He loves these kids. There wasn’t a single thing that he wasn’t going to do for them. 

They didn’t begrudge him for hiding, for not trying to stop the war sooner.

He opened Zuko’s letter with shaky hands, he knew that Zuko looked the most hesitant to hand him his letter, even though he was the one that did it first.

**Hey Dad,**

**Uh... you don’t mind me calling you that right? I mean, my own dad isn’t the best and you just... you kind of treat us like your own kids you know?**

**I hope you forgive us for not giving you anything on Mother’s Day, I saw you pouting. We really didn’t mean anything by it you know?**

**But it just didn’t seem to fit you.**

**Now, Father’s Day, that fits. I really don’t know why, or how, but it does.**

**I went on a journey to find the Avatar, but it seems like the Avatar found me instead. He found the scared boy hiding behind layers of arrogance and toughness.**

**Thank you for that. Thank you for believing in me, for fighting for me, even when I myself couldn’t do that for me.**

**You just wanted to live your life in peace, but I took that from you. I hope you’re not mad at me. I hope our family is enough to replace the peace that you lost, and if it’s not, then we’ll work hard to make sure that it is.**

**Happy Father’s Day Dad.**

**Love,  
Zuko**

**Author's Note:**

> the other one-shots won’t even have half the seriousness that was in this chapter.
> 
> i just decided to make this silly because the real story will probably be a bit grittier.


End file.
